A Well Kept Man

Well, after almost two months back in the US, I have a lot to talk about. First, thanks to all of those who have suggested I make a more earnest effort to continue writing. I must say that I have missed this venue, and look forward to continuing to write as often as I am able. I am back at work (never even missed a beat), but I am missing a key person in the equation. My darling wife is now in Colorado, working for Medtronic in Louisville meaning I am here in the Cities all by my lonesome (with the dog of course). Our house went on the market about two weeks ago (www.4708-10thave.com) and while there was some early interest, that didn't really pan out (ask me about it over a beer sometime...

The Swiss experiment is now over, after 10 months of getting the opportunity to live in an absolutely gorgeous place we are headed back to America (by the time you read this, we will already be back). We both decided that we will miss our evening walks down to the lake the most, followed closely by skiing in the Alps and the chocolate. The high cost of living conversely will not be missed, nor will the inability to communicate with the locals...

Thank you all for sharing this part of the adventure with us, and I hope you stick around to hear about all of the adventures to come. I can't promise they will be as exciting, humorous, and photogenic, but hopefully they will continue to give everyone out there a glimpse of how you too can live the life of A Well Kept Man (or Woman if that's your style)....

As the days in Switzerland became numbered, we decided to basically sit back and relax while savoring the last few days we had in our foreign home. We ventured to Morges for their annual tulip festival, we had dinner with our friends Tom and Sarah (Indian food...yummy!), and dessert with our other friends Jennifer and Jeff (but not on the same night, that would have been crazy!). We even had time to go out for a $90 per plate three course dinner (we decided our wallets needed to remember Switzerland as well).

Lausanne was host for the time trials of the Tour de Romandie (basically our geographic area's version of the Tour de France) so we checked that out one afternoon/evening. But our favorite way to remember our time here was to take our nightly walks down along the lake...très romantique!

Our goal was to go leave Switzerland with no regrets, and I can honestly say we achieved our goal. We didn't necessarily get to every nook and cranny of Europe, but we did see quite a lot of it (her?). Here are some stats and figures to help put into perspective what we were able to do over the last ten months...

2. Number of Swiss cities we visited: 40 (trust me, that's a lot)

7. Cow-related festivals attended: 2

For those interested in going on a tour of a water bottling facility, I strongly encourage you to not drink two cups of coffee, a bottle of juice, and a bottle of water before the two hour tour begins. You would think that there would be plenty of facilities along the tour, but there weren't. Which isn't good when everything the tour guide is pointing out is water related: the bottle washer, rinser, the bottle filler, the fruit juice storage tanks, mineral water, still water, soda, lemonade...(you get the point). The best part of the trip (after the post-tour visit to the water bottling plant's lavatories) was the generous amount of free drinks...I even got a backpack with a selection of some of their products. So to recap, the water bottling plant was pretty cool but in the future I plan to dehydrate myself before visiting as I have a hard time saying no to free stuff.

My cousin Joel and I are the same age (well, within a year anyway...but we grew up together and manage to cross paths a few times a year so we always try to make interesting stories), which makes for fun times as we are pretty much at the same place in life (except for the whole being married thing, otherwise, two peas in a pod). Our first day together was spent heading up to the village of Grandson to see a castle. Inside the castle were various period artifacts such as armor, weapons, furniture, stag's heads, tapestries, and other chateau stuff that seems to blur in my mind now as I've been in so many of them I've lost count. The castle did however have some unique treasures in the basement...classic cars (classic, old, same difference). The was an Austin Limousine belonging to Sir Winston Churchill, a 1906 Ford Type N, and even a car once owned by Greta Garbo (I guess she was some kind of a movie star or something according to Wikipedia). The castle wasn't the most exciting tourist attraction in the world, but that didn't prevent us from having a great time. After the castle we stopped for lunch to have the European equivalent of a burrito...Doner Kebab (truly one of the top food stuffs I've encountered on this adventure).

We followed this exciting day up with a trip to Berne, the capital of Switzerland. We spent some time looking for a Jack Wolfskin store as my cousin likes to have exclusive fashionable items that aren't sold in the US (something about striving for individuality...). Anyway, we explored Berne from the train station up to the hill overlooking the city. We stopped in the humongous Münster of Berne (the large Gothic church with a 100m tall tower) and climbed up to the top (254 steps) where we were treated to a sudden fear of falling, as well as the church bells (the largest bell in all of Switzerland is in the tower, thankfully when the noon o'clock bells went off, this one didn't as my ears would probably still be ringing. The bell weighed something like 20,000 pounds, but even the smaller bells were well into the 10,000 pound range and required us to cover our ears).

After the church, we decided to try a local beer (remember, I haven't found Swiss beer I enjoy yet) and surprisingly enough we found something drinkable at the Altes TramDepot (even though we didn't have seconds, I mean...how much beer are you supposed to drink before 1 pm anyway?). We checked out the lone, last resident of the bear pit (his name was Pedro, unfortunately Pedro is no longer a resident of the pit as he died about a week after we left...RIP Pedro), and made our way back to the apartment for Joel's last evening in Switzerland before he was off to his next adventure in France and Spain. It was nice to have Joel visit, although in the future if anyone desires to visit us wherever we may be living, please schedule your departing flights for later than 12 pm if possible as 7 am flights are no fun for the host...

My cousin Joel arrived in Switzerland as we were completing our Provence vacation, so for a day and half Chez Seeber had two guests (thankfully my dad and Joel have no problem getting along, and neither really complained about having to share a bedroom...although for some strange reason the couch had what appeared to be an imprint of a full grown male in the cushions). I opted to take the two of them on the standard Switzerland visitor tour, which included walking through the streets of Lausanne to show everyone where we live, followed by a trip up to Gruyeres for lunch, then the chocolate factory for treats. After the chocolate buzz wore off we drove back into Lausanne and made a stop at Lac Sauvabelin, which is basically a park in the city with farm animals, a lake, and a wooden tower that overlooks the city.

Nobody seemed to be impressed by the animals (although I suppose the park caters more to those under the age of 12), but the view afforded by the tower provided ample photo opportunities. Surprisingly the highlight of the day wasn't any of these things, nor was it the field of cows that they begged me to stop at for pictures...instead the memory burned in my head of that day will forever be a fire hydrant along the road near Bulle. Why? Because it was painted like Harry Potter, that's why! The remainder of the day was devoted to my version of a Swiss dinner on our terrace (basically a few different blocks of Swiss cheeses, fruits, veggies, dried meats, baguettes, bread, wine, and mineral water) and a walk down by the lake. Our visitor overlap sadly ended the next day when my dad returned to the States and Joel and I were left to cause trouble on our own.

As we usually do when we have guests, here is a picture of our traveling companion from our trip to Provence. It's my Dad for those of you who don't recognize him (usually he has on a black shirt with one of those white collar thingies that pastors wear...sorry Dad if I ruined your secret identity). I don't really have anything witty to say about the photo except that if it weren't for him holding the camera, I might not recognize him (saying he enjoys photography is like saying I miss the United States).

Interesting fact: My dad is the record holder for most pictures (1,366 photos), as well as the per day record holder (171 photos per day) by a visitor of ours to Switzerland.

Our final stop in Provence was the town of Avignon, which from the early 14th to the early 15th century was the de facto center of the Catholic church (think Vatican City, but in France). Apparently things in Italy were getting a little rough during this time so the Pope decided to pack up and move to a less hectic place. As a result, Avignon became the center of the Catholic church and was until in the end of the 1300s when the Pope returned to Rome causing the Great Schism. From 1378 to 1415 there were actually two Popes, one in Avignon and one in Rome (although the Avignon Pope wasn't officially recognized as Pope by the Roman Catholic Church). History lesson over.

The Palace of the Popes is the main attraction in Avignon (a rather large city actually) and was the main reason for our visit. It is quite the impressive structure, and contains many unique items which assist in retelling the story of Papal Avignon. The Palace takes about two hours or so to walk through, and when you add in the adjoining church and gardens expect to spend about three hours. We all decided to stop for a treat as well (one of us had a crepe, one had ice cream, and the other had Diet Coke...guess which one had which) which allowed us to enjoy the garden a little longer (wouldn't want to drip ice cream inside the church now would we?). We then spent the remainder of our time walking through the streets of Avignon making our legs extraordinarily tired, one of us throwing a temper tantrum (yea, that would be me...I was hungry, exhausted, and tired of being the Official Translator of the Lutheran Emissary from Michigan, USA and his daughter-in-law...but I eventually quit being a grouse and we managed to enjoy the rest of the time in Avignon), and ending the evening with a nice meal while watching yet another deluge outside. We managed to stay mostly dry although we had umbrellas so that helped (although the streets resembled small rivers so I can't say our feet made it out unscathed).

In summary, Avignon is a large town with a big castle built for the Popes. It is well worth the time to stop and check it out, but stay outside of the city (or in nearby Arles) if you ever plan on visiting this area. (For some reason this blog is starting to sound more like a travel book...intriguing idea, but then I'd have to actually edit my entries and add more details, which is something I won't have time to do once my time as a man of leisure expires in a few weeks).

A unique feature in this part of Provence are the hill towns which are basically fortified villages built in the hills to enable the villagers to see the bad guys coming. This makes perfect strategic sense as you will always be aware of what is going on before it happens. Les Baux spent the better part of hundreds of years building this fortress and developing the community within. We were somewhat amused at how they seemed to think of everything to protect themselves except for the small item of food, as most of the fields and livestock were kept in the valleys below. Basically, the village had about a month (maybe a month and a half) of reserves so if they were attacked, all the enemy had to do was wait them out until they were so hungry they just gave up. This only happened once (at least that is what the audio tour said) but the village survived other invaders for the better part of 300 years.

The fortress had a display of medieval siege machines (catapults and trebuchets), and we were able to watch them fire water balloons across using some of them (it would have been more fun if they used pumpkins, but since a major road runs below the hill, they were probably worried about hitting a passing car). At its peak, the village housed over 4,000 people but apparently that population is now below 30. Its jagged rocks below the plateau are said to have inspired Dante's description of Purgatory in the Inferno. The stop was completed with some fresh baguette sandwiches from the city, which we ate a turnout alongside the cliffs which provided a dramatic view of Les Baux from below.

After leaving the Pont du Gard, we headed to the city of Nîmes which is very similar to Arles in terms of architecture and feel. Nîmes however, has many more Roman buildings which are in much better condition. The arena (colosseum) in Nîmes was more complete than the arena in Arles, and Nîmes also has an ancient Roman temple, a Pantheon-like structure, a tower, and the remains of gate that marked the entrance to the city which dates from sometime in the early first century BC.

There are also canals running through the city which begin near the Roman Temple of Diane as a result of a naturally occurring spring. The exact purpose of this temple is unknown, but the ruins are part of what was most likely a much larger area of buildings, gardens, and monuments. Seeing such ancient buildings truly makes you stop and ponder just how long people have been running around on Earth.

As we sat in a park outside the arena eating some market food (hot sausages on a baguette for the boys, Mediterranean salad for the lady), we marveled at the awesome events that must have transpired within the arches of the arena (not the actual arches, I'm just attempting to wow you with my poetic skills). We were able to see a few more churches as well as more old stuff as we walked through the city on a pleasant Sunday afternoon (which meant pretty much everything was closed so all of our activities occurred outside). Although the picture doesn't do the scene justice, there was this dog resting his head on a window sill in one of Nîmes' squares. It just seemed to capture the mood of the day, a lazy Sunday in Spring. Our favorite sights here were the gardens (where the Temple of Diane and the Great Tower reside), as well as the arena/amphitheatre (at least from the outside it looked good...kind of hard to justify spending money to go into another arena when you were just in one the day before). Next stop, Avignon...

What trip to Provence wouldn't be complete without a stop at an engineering marvel? So to make sure our trip was complete, we took a morning to go check out this Roman aqueduct from the 1st century AD (although this is slightly disputed, it could have been built earlier). This aqueduct was built without mortar, which is fairly impressive considering it is still standing (although some of the largest stones weigh around 6 tons a piece, so it would take quite the effort to move this monumental structure). It is the second highest standing Roman structure remaining besides the Colosseum in Rome. It's largest arch is 22 m high (just over 72 feet), which means you could drive somewhere between five and six semi trucks stacked on top of each other through the arch (except they'd need pontoons or something to float them as trucks don't drive too well on water). The Pont du Gard was designed as a piece of a greater aqueduct to help ferry water some 50 km (31 miles give or take), with the Pont carrying the water about 275 m (~300 yards) of the way (about 5 million gallons of water made it over the Pont du Gard each day). The level of the river below it was fairly insignificant, but that is not always the case as it has seen several major floods that have tested its abilities (and thankfully survived). Parts of the aqueduct on either end have been pillaged over the years to help build other structures, but the central span still remains and now will stand unharmed (except for the occasional graphic artist) as it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We stayed just outside of Arles in the town of Barbegal for three nights to finish our trip in Provence. Our lodging was a working farm about ten minutes from the city, which had plenty of chickens and feral cats (well, at the beginning of the stay there were plenty of chickens, by the end the cats decided there were too many). The city of Arles was settled by the Greeks in the 6th century BC, before being taken over by the Romans in 2nd century BC. We arrived on market day and wandered around seeing the various sights while snacking on some fresh strawberries from the market. Some of the more noteworthy sights include the Colosseum and the amphitheater; the former which remains one of the best preserved in Europe, the latter which has been ravaged by time but still evokes a picture of the greatness of Rome.

As luck would have it, we were able to get into the arena free of charge as they were practicing for a bullfight later that evening. It was interesting watching the matador dance with the young bull (probably no more than a year old), and thankfully, they were just practicing so there was no sad ending (although later that night, we caught a glimpse of the real thing through the open arches and decided that bullfights weren't really our thing). A funny item of interest was it was fairly evident when the matador did something well as the crowd's cheers were easily heard in the streets around the arena, which elicited cheers from passerbys as well. We laughed a bit when two ladies who obviously could not see a single thing other than the wall of the arena applauded with great fervor at the sound of the cheering crowd inside (¡Olé!).

Arles narrow streets had many vibrantly colored homes and storefronts, and provided a wonderful sensory experience. The main square is home to a cloister and the St. Trophime Church, with a fine example of Romanesque sculpture on the portal entrance. Nearby to Arles are various other sights, such as Daudet's windmill, and an abbey up in the hills. The fields surrounding Arles are mostly utilized for olive and grapes, although lavender is grown here as well. Arles is a very quaint city, and small enough to provide ample respite for those searching for a quiet adventure.